Roni Size

Ryan Owen Granville Williams (born 29 October 1969), better known by his stage name Roni Size, is an English DJ and record producer. He came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and frontman of Roni Size & Reprazent, a drum and bass collective. That year they won the Mercury Prize for their debut studio album New Forms.

Biography

Early life Williams, son of Jamaican immigrants, grew up in the Bristol suburb of St. Andrews. He cites reggae as one of his early influences. He was expelled from school He worked with his brother's comprehensive collection of Studio One records and later set up a home studio, buying a sampler. Williams, Krust, Suv and DJ Die founded Full Cycle Records.

Aided by Chris Lewis, Roni Size founded the record label WTP ("Where's The Party At?") as part of Circus Warp. With Dave Cridge who also DJed for Circus Warp and ran Replay Records Bristol, the two would visit The Record Basement in Reading and in 1993, Full Cycle and Dope Dragon were established.

The group's debut studio album, New Forms, was released on 23 June 1997, with singles featuring the vocals of Onallee including "Brown Paper Bag", "Heroes", "Share the Fall" and "Watching Windows". The album went five times platinum, won the Mercury Prize, and Williams returned to the studio to concentrate on his output for V and Full Cycle and Dope Dragon.

Following their mainstream breakthrough, Reprazent had a series of festival appearances in the summer of 1997. Following on from this, Roni Size and Reprazent returned to North America for the first time in seven years as one of the headliners at the 2009 Ultra Music Festival in Miami. They then went on to perform at Coachella, appearing as the final act of the festival.

In September 2009, Roni Size and Reprazent played a gig with an orchestra and choir to mark the re-opening of Bristol's Colston Hall, collaborating with the BBC's Nature's Great Events composer, William Goodchild. In addition to older material, the band played material from a forthcoming Reprazent album. The group Roni Size & Reprazent's drum and bass is equally blended from hip hop, funk, soul and house.

Discography Studio albums Touching Down (2002) Return to V (2004) Take Kontrol (2014)

Collaborative albums New Forms (1997) with Roni Size & Reprazent Ultra-Obscene (1999) with Breakbeat Era In the Møde (2000) with Roni Size & Reprazent New Forms² (2008) with Roni Size & Reprazent Past & Present (2016) with Krust

Singles and EPs

"Witchcraft" (1994) featuring Krust "Fashion" (1995) "Square Off" (1996) "Snapshot" (1999) "26 Bass" (1999) "Sound Advice" (2002) "Playtime" (2002) "Freshen up the Budgie" (2003) "Snapshot 3" (2003) "Out of Breath" (2004) "No More" (featuring Beverley Knight & Dynamite MC) (2005) "Touching Down, Vol. 2" (2005) "Friends" (2006) "Kops & Robbers" (2009) "Out of Order" (2010) "Size Matters" (2014) ”Edition 1 (Vintage)” (2021)

Compilations and DJ mixes Music Box (1993) Through the Eyes (2000)